Next Final Fantasy Game Could Be Open-World Again; FF15 Director Talks Zelda: Breath of the Wild

One of the most notable elements of Final Fantasy XV is its open world. Barring the series’ MMO installments, XV features one of the biggest settings in a Final Fantasy game to date, and it seems a future installment could also have a similarly large world.

GameSpot got to speak with Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata at PAX West, and among the topics he discussed was what he would like to achieve with his next project. While he didn’t say for sure whether or not his team would again take an open-world approach, Tabata did tease that the game would at least give players the same feeling.

“It’s hard to say at this point if the entire game is gonna be based on an open world,” Tabata said. “But I would say that the overall experience that users get from playing in a massive area, that overall game experience is something that we’re gonna make sure is in the next project as well.”

Tabata also shared his thoughts on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and what his team could learn from Nintendo’s critically acclaimed title. While he says he hasn’t personally played the game yet because he hasn’t been able to find a Switch, he has heard all about it from his team and would like to create a similar experience with his own team’s expertise.

“I’ve heard a lot from the dev team and their reactions to having played it. But just from hearing the stories and the feedback, you know, we can tell that it’s a really complete game,” Tabata said. “It’s very polished, almost a perfect game in that regard. And our goals are probably to take that experience that players felt with Breath of the Wild, but with our own technology and our own know-how.

“We have in our disposal to create a very, very high-quality game with a strong visual element to it, while creating a world that’s really immersive and really beautiful. That’s probably our goals in terms of what we want to be with our next project.”